Slovakia draws up law on R&D stimuli

The Slovak Ministry of Education has prepared a law on research and development (R&D) stimuli, which defines the rules for state aid provided to businesses in the area of R&D.

Two types of stimuli are envisaged.

1. Subsidises provided by the state budget for:

(a) support to basic, applied and/or experimental R&D; 

(b) preparation of the feasibility studies; 

(c) protection of intellectual property rights (IPR); 

(d) temporary assignment of highly skilled R&D workers. 

2. Tax allowances. 

Stimuli are provided by the Ministries of Education and Finance. All kinds of businesses may apply for stimuli. The provision of stimuli is subject to the creation of new or teh extension of incumbent R&D workplaces for the period of at least five years. The maximum sum of the stimuli was set pursuant to Article 6 of Commission Regulation (EC) No 800/2008 declaring certain categories of aid compatible with the common market. The maximal total eligible costs per applicant was set to EUR 1 million for basic research projects and EUR 3.5 million for applied and experimental research projects. Eligible costs include wages, travel, material and energy costs, and costs of external services related to implementation of R&D projects. 

The proposal for the law on R&D stimuli was approved by the Slovak government and is currently under discussion in the Slovak parliament. 

Source: Slovak Government Resolution No 91/2009 of 28 January 2009: Proposal for the Law in R&D Stimuli